Something Corporate

Chapter 11:

The next day, Pips didn't show up for work. Not that Marik even noticed it, though. He was too busy planning what he was going to do with his money. He'd dragged his hikari into it, also, but Malik wasn't showing the same enthusiasm.

"C'mon, Malik. Don't you want a say in this too?" Marik was sitting on the floor, in the center of piles of money.

Malik was standing in front of the giant television set, in the corner of the office, and jazzercising along with the video tape, "I don't wanna, Marik. I'm having second thoughts about what Pips said. Don't you worry about the economy?"

"Not really. Hey, you know, I think we should buy a car with all this money. I'm tired of riding the bus."

"The bus is fun. I thought you liked it." He twirled around and pressed the pause button on the VCR. "Cars are overrated anyway, I support public transportation."

"… Maybe you're right."

"About taking the Miniport off the market?"

"No, about the car. I mean, we'd be the only ones on the road. Everyone else will be teleporting all around."

"Marik, all this money makes me feel dirty."

"Money will do that to you if you keep rolling around in it, naked."

Malik gasped, "Ah! You saw that?"

"Yup. You should learn to lock your door, Malik."

"AAAAHHHHH!" There was a loud scream from outside the office window. Marik and Malik's ears perked up and they ran over to the window sill. Looking down to the street, they couldn't really see much, except a crowd of people surrounding what Marik supposed was a car wreck.

"No," Malik shook his head, "I don't think it's a car wreck, there are never any cars on the street anymore."

"… Well, let's go check it out then."

"What? Why would we do that?"

"Because. All this," He waved his hand out the window, "Is going on outside our building. We don't want some kind of a scandal related to Ishtar Industries."

"Oh, okay."

"Plus, if it's something cool, I'm going to need to take pictures!" Marik took out his camera. "Let's roll."

Despite Malik's objections, they went into the elevator and came out on the bottom floor. Marik was the first one to rush over to the scene with Malik following. The yami was shoving young people out of the way and hitting old ladies over the head with his camera.

"Jeez, Marik, go easy." Malik called from outside the circle of people.

But Marik could no longer hear his hikari, because he'd reached the thing that everyone was crowding around, "Oh my Ra! What the hell is that?"

"What is it?" Malik called, "What do you see?"

Marik was standing right in front of a strange-looking person… err, actually, it was two strange-looking people combined. Their skin was actually intertwined to where in looked like one mangled human being. Eyes and ears and other body parts were all over the place (not on the floor).

The large crowd looked up when they heard the siren of an ambulance. They backed away slowly and the EMTs came and hauled the mess away.

When the two people were being put in the back of the ambulance, something dropped off it's arm and bounced onto the cement.

Malik looked down at it and picked it up, "Hey, Marik… Look, it's a melted Miniport."

"…Melted?" Marik looked at it, then turned around to see the ambulance speeding off to the hospital, "Hmm."

-

"Seto, are you sure about this?" Mokuba was sitting on the top if his big brother's desk and checking things of on his clipboard, "I don't think this is a wise decision."

"It's fine." Kaiba was dressed in a black stealth-suit. He was preparing to go over to Ishtar Industries and figure out a way to get the Miniport's name out of Marik and Malik's hands.

Mokuba shook his head, "It could be dangerous."

"Marik and Malik? Dangerous? Ha! They're about as dangerous as a puddle of kittens." Kaiba put his hood up and walked to the door of the office, "Don't wait up for me, Mokuba."

"But, wait! Don't you want me to have a limo ready for you?"

"No, I'm going to use… inconspicuous transportation."

Kaiba ended up riding the bus. There were a total of only five people, including him and the bus driver, but he stuck out because of the ninja-look. After thirty minutes of Kaiba being starred at and poked, the bus arrived in front of the Ishtar Industries Headquarters.

He got out and snuck up to the building, trying not to be seen, although it was in broad daylight.

Sticking his head through the revolving door, Kaiba was able to see the elevator. It was about to close with a bunch of people hurrying in, so he started running through the lobby, and took a dive through the closing elevator door.

Once he was inside, he sighed and thought, 'Whoop! I'm inside. Who knew I could be so sneaky? Now, if I know Marik… his office should be on the top floor. When I get in, I'll be able to sabotage his stupid little plan, and make Ishtar Industries crumble to the ground! Muahaha!'

Little did Seto Kaiba know that he'd said all that out loud. And every one of Marik's employees, that were in the elevatorwith him, were starring and whispering to each other.

The elevator hit the fourteenth floor, and Kaiba got out. He didn't want to be seen by any of Marik and Malik's guards, so he tiptoed around and when he heard footsteps, he hid behind a plant or painting (of course, he was easily seen by everyone, but they left him alone.)

President and Vice-President. That's what was engraved in big gold letters on a mahogany door at the end of the long hallway.

"Yeeees!" Kaiba patted himself on the back and snuck up to the door. He jiggled the door handle and it easily opened.

Kaiba first peeked inside, and when he saw that no one was there, he ran inside and shut the door behind him.

"Okay…" He looked around, and saw that the room was decorated in to halves. One side with regular blue wallpaper and the other with a leopard print. He went over to the leopard side of the room and looked through the desk drawers.

There were only a few things of particular interest to Kaiba … A picture of Marik and Malik, a yoyo, a spandex suit, and a few Madonna tapes. Kaiba pocketed the Madonna tapes and went over to the other desk.

He scrounged around in the drawers and didn't find anything but a few pieces of gum and some pictures of Yami and Yugi with red marks all over them. Kaiba sighed, 'Where in hell do they keep the important documents? These are pretty lousy CEOs, if you ask me.'

Kaiba turned around when he heard footsteps outside and Malik's whining. He looked around frantically, 'Gotta hide! Gotta hide!' He dove behind the first desk and crunched up into the shadows, hoping they wouldn't see him.

The door burst open with Marik and Malik following.

"Malik, I don't know what's going on, but it has something to do with the Miniport." Marik threw the melted and burned Miniport onto Malik's desk.

"But it could've been a coincidence. Besides, how could the Miniport have done that? I mean, do you even know what happened?"

"…"

"See? You're jumping to conclusions. This is all pure speculation. No proof." Malik folded his arms and sat down in his chair, behind his desk. He scooted in closer and his knee bumped something underneath the table top, but he didn't notice it.

Kaiba was the thing that Malik bumped into. When Malik's knee hit him in the eye, Kaiba had to hold in a squeak of pain.

"I don't need proof. This is my yami's intuition!"

"And this is my hikari's commonsense! You can't go around just saying things that you don't know about. What if this got out? That the Miniport was doing that to people. Do you know how much trouble we'd be in?"

Kaiba's ears perked up, 'Hmm? What's this?'

"Oh, come on, Malik. Do you honestly think that anything else besides the Miniport could've done that to those people? They were horribly mangled and their skin was intertwined! Their skin!"

'I better get this all on recording!' Kaiba pulled out a small digital recorder from his pocket and pressed play.

"It could've been shadow magic. Bakura or Yami might've-"

"Yami? That goody-goody? No way. Yugi keeps him on a short leash. And Bakura was here all day long."

Malik sighed, "Then… does that mean that the Miniport is, you know, malfunctioning?"

"I'm not sure. But if it is, it could be doing that to people all over the world. I'm not sure how it works though…"

"We… could find out."

Marik looked at him and tilted his head, "You mean…?"

He nodded.

"Boom, baby! That's what I'm talking about! Let's go, Malik." Marik opened the door and Malik followed him out and into the hallway.

When the door shut behind them, Kaiba got out from under the desk and looked at the little recorder in his hand. Then back at the door, "Someone was horribly mangled? Awesome. I never expected such great results. Ah, the comforts of being me."

-

It was about thirty minutes later, Marik and Malik came back to their house in order to find out more about the Miniport and if something like they had just seen could possibly happen.

So, this required yet another call to Mr. Elmer Fizz's house. Malik wanted to impersonate Mike Tyson again, but Marik encouraged creativity, so Malik decided to do someone else.

"Hello?" Elmer spoke into the receiver of the phone, "This is the Fizz residence, who may I say is calling?"

Malik said as daintily as he could, "Hello, Mr. Elmer Fizz?"

"Yes, ma'am. Are you calling for me?"

"Why, yes I am. This is Dolly Parton. I'm just calling you to tell ya that you've won a little ol' contest."

"Wow! Dolly Parton? Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Elmer was squeaking and squealing like a teenage girl with concert tickets. "This is just too cool! I mean, first it was Mike Tyson, now you! You're awesome!"

"Thank ya, darlin'. Now, in order to get your prize, I need ya to answer a few questions for me… Can ya do that, sugar?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am!"

In less than ten minutes, Elmer had yet again spilled his guts out to Dolly… err, Malik. Marik had the phone on speaker, so that he could hear, too. When the phone call was over, Marik congratulated his young hikari on becoming such an accomplished impersonator.

"So, I guess that means… the Miniport did do it." Malik sat back and sighed, "Marik, what are going to do?"

"I'll tell you what we're NOT going to do. We're NOT going to tell anyone about this."

"But, Marik-"

"Don't 'but Marik' me. If this kind of thing gets out, imagine the trouble we'd be in. We now know about the possibility of this catastrophe happening everywhere! This info could do some serious damage… So, we're just going to have to wait for this to blow over. No one knows the Miniport is behind this… we're safe, for now."